Happy Halloween...West Hollywood style

The return of a classic...Welcome to the Terrordome!

This gives me chills...Pharoahe premieres Oct 31st.!


Welcome To The Terrordome from W.A.R. Media on Vimeo.


Pharoahe Monch from Monstar Productions LLC on Vimeo.

Ivy League gets some hip-hop

I can hear them now..."Say hooooo!" Today and Saturday, Cornell University in Upstate New York will get a gem of hip-hop culture in a unique event called "Born in the Bronx: A Celebration of Hip Hop".

Who's in da house? Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Caz, Joe Conzo Jr., Charlie Ahearn,
GrandWizzard Theodore, Pebblee Poo, DJ Tony Tone, DJ Disco Wiz, Roxanne Shante and Popmaster Fabel.

Now why are these legends and commentators like Jeff Chang heading to Ithaca, NY aka 'middle-of-nowhere' to speak and perform?! Well, Cornell University's Ivy League library has acquired a major collection of hip-hop history. Johan Kugelberg, a collector, curator and author of "Born in the Bronx", donated his 2,000-piece collection. "Born in the Bronx: The Legacy and Evolution of Hip Hop" is a unique collection that captures the early days of hip hop, featuring nearly 1,000 sound recordings, the photographic archive of Bronx photographer Joe Conzo, Jr. and a collection of more than 500 original party fliers designed by Buddy Esquire. Crazy!

Word is Bond "By paying tribute to those who laid the foundation, we tell our own history," Bambaataa said. "Preserving Hip Hop's early years will help future generations understand the places they come from."

"We want the community at large to celebrate hip hop's contributions to American culture through a better understanding of its origins, which are the focus of this unique collection,” said Katherine Reagan, curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts at Cornell University Library.

If you're on the east coast...or have a G4 Registration is free but space is limited. Register here. The schedule can be found here and for visitor info just click this link.
Press contact: rareref@cornell.edu

"Stay out of Camberwick Green!"

Last night I finished watching "Life On Mars". That's the best British TV show I've seen since moving here...may be I'm homesick, but this smart detective series about a delusional time-traveling police officer keeps me locked to the TV (PC screen) through its clever mixing of 70's nostalgia, psych-rock music and quirky Brit humor.

"And, I'm seeing things", says Sam Tyler.
"You're always see-ing *things*...", replies Annie Cartwright.


Lucky to see the light of day This show was originally conceived way back in 1998, but it took a re-write and re-development of the main characters and someone at BBC Wales to stick their oar in to get it made seven years later.

There's lots of attention to detail and clever dialogue that plays on Sam Tyler's predicament...he's frustratingly trapped in a past he doesn't know after being brain injured in a car accident (he was 4 years old in 1973), yet he hears voices from the future he's left behind. In the opening episode iPod in his Sam's Jeep Cherokee gets switched with an 8-track player in his Rover P6 after waking up 30 years in the past...so cool! Having Bowie's "Life on Mars" as the theme song shows how influential the 70s was. Oh, and Manchester never looked better!!


"Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play. But this box can hide a secret inside. Can you guess what is in it today?"

See below Episode 5, Series 2 opens with the Camberwick Green scene which is as hilarious as it is odd?! Especially as it plays out a few minutes later. Has someone been smoking the wacky-baccy?! (The original is preserved on YouTube below too...ah, bless!) Watch all the episodes and you'll see the BBC test-screen girl appear a few times too...it's weird, but cool!


Watch lom205.WMV in News Online | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Bargain hunters...

Apple, Ebay, Google, Microsoft, RIM...take your pick. I did.

Happy birthday, Dad

China...the biggest stage?

Kanye West is taking his "Glow in the Dark 2008" tour to Shanghai, China. That's big!



He's performing in front of 1000s at the Shanghai Grand Stage next Monday as part of his sell-out tour. The Rolling Stones played there recently. If you're in town there's an after-party too.

Concert tickets are 880RMB (US$130) which is worth it - the show will be fire! Check out this video...3 mins in and the video projection goes crazy! Forget about the live band that Jay-Z takes on tour...it's all about the landscape stages, massive LCD screens and smoke machines! Drop Jessica an email for more info...jessica_musegroup@126.com

For those of you into something else, Marcus is on tour with Kylie (Minogue) in Shanghai...yep November again. Hey, who knows...may be there's a Kanye Kylie collab coming?! ;)

Cypher, B-Boy book

There's a new b-boy book in town...rock photographer, Charles Peterson, and Powerhouse books (Hip Hop Files, The Beastie Boys Anthology, The Breaks) have put together photos of ciphers (I hate that cypher spelling...yuck!)

Shot over a period of six years mainly in Peterson's hometown of Seattle and a few b-boy events in Los Angeles, New York City, and Portland. In his photos, Peterson captures the bold moves, twists and turns with a medium format camera. Man, I gotta get myself a better camera! Oh and Jeff Chang has added a few words to tie the whole shabang together.

So, who's in the CYPHER? Rock Steady Crew: Renegade, Jeskilz, ATS, DJ DV One, Fenix, Artson; Massive Monkees: Twixx, Juse, Iron Mike Brysen; Ready to Rock: Floor Phantom, Tyquan; Circle of Fire (Seattle): Seth, Orb, Mosez, Quest, Thagirl,Free; BYC: Eriko, Miami Nice; KLP Crew (France): Krimo, G-Rhum; Curfew Breakers: Simi, Fenix; Drifters Crew (Korea); Freshest Kidz Crew (Seattle, Portland); Gamblers Crew (Korea); Mortal Kombat Crew (Japan); Killafornia Crew; Rivers Crew (Korea); Caspar (Mighty Zulu Kings, Boogie Brats); Asia One (No Easy Props); Kid Glyde (Dynamic Rockers); A-B-Girl (Domestic Apes); DJ Scene; Dama (Unique Styles Crew); Hiro (Spartanic Rockers); Lazy Legs (Ill Abilities); Marcio (Soul Control), Frankie (Supeme Beings Crew); Rockadile (Battle Monkeys); Thesis (Knuckleheads Cali); Geom (Battle Born Crew), Juan (Dance Broomz), Mouse (360 Gun Battalion), Newtzybot, Lancelot, and more!

The battles

• Circle of Fire Mondays, Nation, Seattle (2002)
• Vera Project Battles, Seattle (2003)
• Soul City Mondays, Noiselab and the War Room (2003-Present)
• B-Boy Summit, Los Angeles (2006)
• Rock Steady Crew 30th Anniversary, NYC (2007)
• Freestyle Session 10th Anniversary, Los Angeles (2007)
• Ashes to Ashes, Portland, OR (2007)
• Massive Monkees Day, UW Hub (2007)
• Spartanic Rockers Anniversary, Tokyo (2006)
• and many other rec jams and club nights

Retna and Mac murals in LA

Near my apartment are these amazing graffiti murals that incorporate a flawless, photo quality image of a girl's face. I know that Retna from the Seventh Letter crew does them, but I didn't know about his collaborator, El Mac (The Mac). Check out his blog here.

Q-Tip..up close and personal

Last week, Q-Tip came to town to do an album listening event at Turntable Lab. During the Q&A session he said "what's the question...?!", to laughs from fans. This was in response to being asked about dating Nicole Kidman. Come on, it's LA after all...we want some celeb gossip!?

If you don't know, Q-Tip is hip-hop royalty who is indelibly imprinted in our minds and hearts as the raspy-voiced leader of A Tribe Called Quest. ATCQ for short. Here's his Q&A session in LA with old skool fans like me!

"Hello...this is your Midnight Marauders program, we hope that you will find our presentation precise, bass-heavy and 'just right'...thanks!"



You have to remember the jazz inspired album, Midnight Marauders, with those (double) basslines, horns and vibes that only a jazz head could capture. Creating a seamless rap album from fragments of disparate music that went platinum raised the bar for all artists and was a milestone in hip-hop history. Q-Tips lyrics were always poetry without being vulgar or violent. The man is a genius and still true to the game.

Can't wait for Bruno...

“It’s clothes. We’re not saving lives,” said a reality TV fashionista at the season premiere of her new series.

Bravo to her for having her feet on the ground! And just in time, as our Brit fave, Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G, aka Borat) is well on his way to making a mockery of the fashion industry! Bruno's fashion-victim caricature has been spotted earlier this month causing mayhem in Paris at Stella McCartney's Fashion Week show, and also in my backyard here in Los Angeles.

As British Vogue reported: “With his red thong clearly visible above his jeans, the comedian -- who was virtually unrecognizable in a flamboyant leather gilet, with his slicked-down hair dyed blonde and brown -- sucked Tampax, clapped along to the music and generally disgruntled the front row by continually pushing those sitting in front of him for a better look at the models ... who held their own -- and won a lone standing ovation from their most eccentric, and possibly biggest, new fan.”

I'm not sure the laughs will be belly-achers like Borat delivered, but it's in my calendar - the release date is May 15th, 2009!

G1 phones in stores now...

About 150 people lined up outside a T-Mobile store in San Francisco on Tuesday night to cop one of the first G1 (Google "Android") phones. The G1 starts at $180 with a two-year contract. If you wanna get it without it'll cost you $400.

I went to check it out on Thursday and was pleasantly surprised. It's better than the photos suggest. The build quality is solid (I'm mean don't drop it under a bus?!), the keyboard slider is smooth. The touchscreen, although a bit small compared to the iPhone, is good and the UI was intuitive, and I love the trackball, three-homepages and the dedicated number keys. I didn't get too lost just picking the G1 up and playing with it. Here's a more indepth demo.



I didn't put my name down to buy one. There are 20-30 Android phones coming out by Q2 2009...Moto, possibly a secret Nokia and more from HTC fo'sure! So the best is yet to come I think. And let's see how the Android Marketplace takes off now that Google has said it'll give 70% of revs to the developers and share the remaining money with services providers.

And, this week, AT&T announced November 4th for the Blackberry Bold. And Verizon countered with the Blackberry Storm on November xx (rumored to be 15, 16 or 20th)...but are they serious... I heard $699?! I know it has a unique dual network (CDMA and GSM) feature which makes it ultra expensive...but subsidize that mutha 'cause Verizon's data plans are killer expensive too! Still, it looks dope!

adidas do it again...AZX Consortium

If you want a "who's who" of sneaker retailers, then this collaboration project probably has the best Roledex.

Jay-Z was in town...

It was crazy...! Thanks Ja for the tix!

Give the poor a voice...15th October 2008

Blog Action Day is about garnering the support from all the independent publishers who use the internet as their medium. The cause is poverty. The disease is lethargy. We all have a voice and therefore the power to make some change happen.

Please take a read, listen and look at some of the messages from other supporters on the Blog Action website. The advice given to me was to keep "on topic"...but what is the topic of my blog?! It's just about me and it's about lifestyle, so let me keep it short and sweet and show how a couple of minutes and clicks can make a difference in the world.

The Blog Action website inspired me with the simple idea of micro loans and connected me to Kiva, an organization that will do all the hard work of connection my money to an entrepreneur in a developing country. I just gave Kiva $25...It's not a lot, but it'll make a difference to Shukur Jalilov a farmer in Tajikistan who wanted $600 to get more cattle and feed for the coming winter.

I want to make a difference in LA so I give my regular support to the LA Mission in downtown's "Skid Row". Even though there is $100 millions of development money pouring into a few square miles, there are still homeless and hurting people downtown whom the LA Mission gives food, warmth and shelter to.

May be spend a moment on the Blog Action website or think about your local community to see what you can do to help to reduce poverty. The Donate Your Day's Earnings page is an easy way to contribute to this movement and a great way to show your support.

Beautiful Losers...London

Beautiful Losers is hitting London! If you're in town for the film premiere and party as part of the London Film Festival go check out LA-resident, Squeak E. Clean. He contributed music to the film and a handful of the film's artists are also part of the his record label's N.A.S.A. film/video project.

Saturday 18th October
Official Beautiful Losers After-party (in association with Betacast & Thugs & Hugs)
9pm – 2.30am
Cordy House
87 – 95 Curtain Road
London EC2A 3SB

Go visit the Beautiful Losers website for more info.

Go try Farecast.com

I love Farecast almost as much as I love TripAdvisor. And as I was booking my trip to Mexico City I noticed that Farecast has been acquired by Microsoft. But why? It's a great flight search engine, but that's been done by Orbitz, Expedia etc. No, what's cool is its historic database. That's where the real action is. Imagine what you could do with millions of historic flight fares stored and cross-referenced in a "black box" and available to you and me on the web?

Farecast gives you predictions on whether airfares will hold, go up or go down and that means, if you're a planner like me, you can decide when its best to buy a flight...now or later? Microsoft probably wants to take a peek under the hood of the database and also get its hands on the advertising inventory and eyeballs of Farecast repeat visitors. And I guess as Expedia was founded by Microsoft in 1995 it has some travel game experience.

It takes a nation of millions...

What happens when art meets music? Well, when the street artist come art icon, Obey, mixes it up with rap legends, Public Enemy it turns into a full blown art and clothing project! And Stevio goes shopping :)

I copped myself one of the dope, military-inspired M-65 jackets created by Obey and PE. This is just like the ones (self-proclaimed) Professor Griff's S1Ws wore for stage with PE back in the 90s. I'm not a FoI (Fruit of Islam), but I'm lovin' the old skool hip-hop, fool!

Who needs a stimulus package? I'm helping the economy. PS...Made in China?!

The Brits are taking over...

I was watching TV last Weds and spotted a cute lady on Pushing Daisies. "That looks like Anna Friel", I thought....it is Anna Friel! I LOVE YOU you Northerner! Hahahaha!

So, the Brits are coming over here and taking prime roles all over US TV and being imported back to the UK and syndicated to the world. Don't believe me? Check this out. It's wonderful!



ER - Alex Kingston plays Dr. Elizabeth Corday and Parminder Nagra plays Dr. Neela Rasgotra
Without A Trace - Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Vivian Johnson
House - Hugh Laurie plays Dr. Gregory House
Pushing Daisies - Anna Friel plays Charlotte "Chuck" Charles

Aw hell no, did you end a sentence with a preposition?

Someone sent me this video clip. It's so awesome as they say here in the States. The comedy is the video takes a street rap freestyle "battle" and translates it into some Ivy league university debating class! It's dope!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Catch it whilst you can...Beautiful Losers

Whilst I was traveling I missed the free screening of Beautiful Losers at the cool Nike Montalbán theater, in Hollywood so I'm waiting for a loan of a DVD.


But, you guys have the chance to see it in the theatres...Are you anywhere near these spots?

* Oct 22 at 11AM and 10/29/08 at 11:30PM @ Viennale film festival, Vienna, Austria
* Oct 21 at 4:15 PM @ London Film Festival at ICA, London UK
* Oct 18 at 6:30 PM @ London Film Festival at National Film Theatre, London UK
* Oct 12 at 9:15PM @ Hawaii International Film Festival, Hawaii USA Buy tix
* Oct 11 at 7:30PM @ AIGA Arizona Presents Beautiful Losers, Tempe USA Buy tix

LA's Top 10...most wanted gang members

I'm glad these names aren't familiar to me...Canoga Park Alabama, The Magician Club, Avenuse Street Gang, Crazy Riders, ,38th Street, Al Capones, Swan, Drek, Toonerville, Cuatro Flats. These are the LA street gangs where killers dwell.

I found them on the LAPD website...if you want to see how gang crime stats are looking check them out here. All, but one is on the decrease, but stats are like bikinis...they are suggestive, but hide the real interesting stuff!

We all need to do this to make a difference!

I've signed up...have you?